Until questionable clock management eliminated the unimaginable. Until a tipped pass led to a caught pass and there was no way to stop the clock—and this heavyweight fistfight finally found a place in history.

“We needed a miracle,” said Alabama offensive tackle D.J. Fluker.

They got the one thing that means more to anyone in this meatgrinder of a conference; the one thing that has come to define the college football season. An SEC championship.

“This is the game that matters to me,” said Alabama tailback Eddie Lacy. “I’m not even thinking about that other game right now.”

That’s why it wasn’t over here until Alabama’s 32-28 victory over Georgia allowed the Tide to finally close out last season. This is the way it works in the biggest, baddest conference of all.

Winning a national championship can’t replace this feeling. Earning the right to play for another on Jan. 7 against Notre Dame can’t, either.

Alabama was a state away from the Georgia Dome this time last year, caught up in a BCS beauty pageant with Oklahoma State while LSU was strutting around this field with the biggest prize of all. Getting a shot at LSU in the national championship game with some funky BCS math couldn’t ease the sting—no matter how good it looked.

“Having to watch that was one of the worst days of my football life,” Alabama linebacker Nico Johnson said of last year’s SEC title game.

Starting to see where this is headed? So when Georgia decided against spiking the ball with 14 seconds to play and setting up for a final play or two; when the Dawgs put an entire game of strongest man wins on a hurried final pass play from the Alabama 8, two years of work—last year and this year—had come to this.

For Alabama, it has come full-circle: A season as the controversial champion. A new season as the hunted unbeaten. A week as the upset victim of the year. And finally, a moment of good fortune in a week of crazy that allowed the Tide back into a national title chase that made this SEC game that much more important.

The call came from upstairs in the coaches box. As Georgia hurried to the line of scrimmage after a 28-yard pass to Arthur Lynch moved the ball to the 8, Bulldogs offensive coordinator Mike Bobo called for a fade to Malcolm Mitchell.

Instead of clocking the ball and having—at the very least—12 seconds remaining with no timeouts, quarterback Aaron Murray threw the fade. Tide linebacker C.J. Mosley tipped the pass, which was caught, on instinct, by wideout Chris Conley at the 4 as the clock ran out and Georgia couldn’t get another play off. Alabama had its miracle.

“In hindsight, maybe we should have (clocked it),” Bobo said in the middle of the Georgia locker room, his arms folded, his legs crossed, his eyes staring into nothing. “We thought we could get two (plays) there. It just didn’t happen.”

Somehow it came down to that one play; that one moment of chance in a game of two physical, athletic teams seeing who would blink first. It just didn’t seem right—but then again, what about this game did?

Here were two of the best defenses in the nation getting gashed by each other time and again. Here was Alabama, with a team full of experience and many guys who already have won two national titles, finding a way to earn an opportunity to win three of the last four with mega games from two freshmen.

Tailback T.J. Yeldon ran for 153 yards and a touchdown, and wide receiver Amari Cooper had seven catches for 127 yards and a touchdown. The two were critical in Alabama’s 14-point fourth quarter, allowing the Tide to withstand an average game from AJ McCarron—and a downright disappointing game from its defense.

But this team that found a rallying point before the season began; that found motivation where many wouldn’t expect it, found a way to win again. The difference: this time, the call from the coaches booth nailed it.

Tide offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier called a play action pass to Cooper, who had single coverage with Georgia’s safeties creeping toward the line to stop the run. Cooper got inside cornerback Damian Swann off the line, then ran by him toward the post.

McCarron, after a perfect play action fake, heaved the ball as far as he could from midfield.

“I knew I wasn’t going to overthrow him,” McCarron said.

It landed right in the hands of Cooper, who didn’t break stride, for a 45-yard game-winning touchdown. All it took was two defensive stops, officials overturning an Alabama interception, poor clock management, a tipped pass and, yes, a miracle, for Alabama to have its prize.

“This game is so different than any other,” said Alabama center Barrett Jones. “It’s hard to put into words how important it is to win this game.”

After the game, after Georgia coach Mark Richt had answered every question in a somber postgame interview, he was asked before he walked out about how this loss would contribute to the narrative of he and Murray not winning big games.

Had Georgia won, it would be playing Notre Dame in the BCS National Championship Game, a goal that has for too long seemed out of reach for the Bulldogs.

One of the coolest customers in the game, Richt answered politely and walked off the dais—before turning around, pointing his finger at the questioner and saying sternly, “If you don’t think this team played their butts off in this game, you don’t get it.”

If you don’t think this game means as much—or more—than the national championship for those involved, you don’t get it, either.